To create a positive and productive interview environment, I recommend adopting a conversational style. This approach helps put everyone at ease, making candidates feel more comfortable while allowing for a more open and genuine dialogue. Remember, while the interview is an assessment, it is also a two-way conversation where people should feel encouraged to connect.

Suggested Structure of the Formal Interview:

Prior

• Review the candidates’ written documents.
• Read the Position Description.
• Highlight any areas you want to clarify or explore further. 

Opening

1. Start with general small talk, offer refreshments and discuss light topics like the weather. Share a light-hearted anecdote to help everyone feel at ease.

Reinforce the positive feedback provided on the candidate from internal team members.

Middle

• Focus on the core technical aspect of the role.
• Ask about their experience with key responsibilities and any challenges they may have faced.
• Discuss learnings from their previous experiences.  

End

• Ask for and encourage questions from the candidate, let them get anything they need to get off their mind out on the table.
• Present the key benefits and opportunities the role offers to the candidate.

You won’t have time to cover everything you want to in the interview, an hour isn’t enough, so I suggest picking a few of the most important elements of the role and digging into those. 

You will also be looking and listening out for signs of cultural fit, motivation, weaknesses, strengths, areas of development, intelligence, flexibility, rigidity, adaptability. Your instincts are valid. 

After

Record your thoughts as soon as possible after meeting the candidate. This will help to reduce the risk of recency bias, particularly when interviewing several candidates on one day.

Past Behavioural Questions

Past behavioural questions are used because traditional recruitment theory posits that past behaviour predicts future behaviour. Candidates are asked to describe what they did in previous workplace situations and employers use this information as evidence that the candidate will act in a similar way in the future.

Examples of past behavioural questions are:

• Think about a time when you had a conflict at work. What was the issue? How did you respond? What was the result?
• Give me an example of a problem you faced on the job and tell me how you solved it. What process did you use? What was the outcome?
• Tell me about a time when you faced conflicting priorities. What did you do? What was the end result?
• What was the toughest hurdle you’ve had to face at work and how did you deal with it? What was the outcome?
• There are times when a firm decision must be made quickly, and there are other times when it is prudent to consider all angles before reaching a conclusion. Give an example of a situation in the past when you took time to make a final decision. What steps did you take? What was the outcome?

Past behavioural questions usually require a structured response using the STAR/SAR/CAR/SOAR technique.

Situational Questions

Situational questions are based on goal-setting theory and rely on the assumption that intentions predict future behaviour. Situational questions ask candidates to describe what they would do in a hypothetical workplace situation. Situational questions are a way to measure job knowledge, experience, cognitive ability and personality. They may provide insights into company culture fit, managing change and responding to problems/issues/challenges on the job.

Examples of situational questions include:

• What would you do if the work of a subordinate was not up to expectations?
• List the steps you would take to complete the following task [insert specific task]…
• How would you cope with a stressful situation at work such as [insert scenario]?
• If we were to hire you, what are some of the first actions you would take?
• What approach would you take to managing a team of this size?
• How would you handle a difficult stakeholder during a complex negotiation?

Competency Questions

Competency is another word for a candidate’s skills, capability and working knowledge.

Questions around competency are designed to uncover information about a specific area of your expertise. Competency questions may be behavioural, technical or any other type of question that hones in on an attribute required to be successful in the role.

For example:

Problem-solving – Think of a difficult problem you had to solve in a previous role. What was it? How did you approach it? What did you do? What was the outcome?

Communication – Tell us about a time when you had to tailor your communication style to reach a particular audience.

Decision-making – Give us an example of a time when you had to make an important decision at work. What was it? What did you do?

Leadership – Think of a time when you showed effective leadership skills. When? What did you do? What was the result?

Teamwork – Describe a time when you worked effectively as part of a team.

Analytical skills – Provide an example of a time when you used your analytical skills.

Conflict management – Tell us about a time when you had to deal with conflict in your team. What occurred? How did you handle it? What was the outcome?

Business Planning – What is your approach to assessing, planning and prioritising an existing roadmap, ensuring outcomes are achieved on budget, on time and while maintaining high engagement levels?

Technical Questions

Most interviews will have a section dedicated to honing in on details about technical skills. Some organisations have a general interview and then a second interview specifically for skills testing.

A technical interview may include white-boarding. You might ask a candidate to map out a real problem to solve or case to discuss.

Some examples of technical questions are:

• Describe your experience with [insert technical skill here]?
• What process would you use to [insert technical skill here]?
• Walk me through how you would solve this technical challenge [insert problem here]?
• What are some of the biggest issues you’ve encountered with [insert technical scenario here]?
• Describe a time when you were challenged to go beyond your technical capabilities. What did you do? Why did you choose to do that? What was the result? What did you learn?
• What key technical skills do you have that will make you successful in this position?

Personality Questions

Often personality questions are used to provide information about motivations, team fit, management fit and culture fit.

Examples are:

• Tell me about a situation at work that was stressful. What happened?
• If I were to talk with your previous/current co-workers, how would they describe you?
• What do you do when you know you’re right and others disagree with you?
• Tell me about a time you took a risk at work and it paid off.
• Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team? Why is that?
• Tell me about the best manager you ever had? Now tell me about the worst?
• Think of a time when you made a mistake at work. How did you handle it?

Leadership and Management

For a position where the candidate will be managing a team, here are some common questions:

• How do you invite input from others in your team?
• What is your leadership / management style?
• What has been the most successful organisational culture you have worked in? How did you contribute?
• Give me an example of a time when you motivated a team of people to reach a deadline. What approach did you take? What was the outcome?
• What types of people do you find challenging to work with?
• Describe a crisis you had to manage. What happened? What actions did you take? What was your thinking behind the actions? What did you learn?
• Are you a leader or a follower? Why? Give me an example.
• Tell me about a time when you managed a reorganisation. What was the context? How did you do it? What were some of the challenges? What was the outcome? What did you take away from that experience?
• How do you ensure that resources under your control are utilised effectively?
• How do you help your team to learn and develop? Give me an example.
• Tell me about a time you had to make an operational change due to budget restrictions. How did you approach it? Why did you choose to do it that way? What was the impact? What did you learn?
• How do you react to others who have a strong difference of opinion?

Communication and Influencing Skills

Examples of communication skills questions are:

• What is your communication style?
• How do you influence others to accept your ideas? Give me an example.
• What are some of the challenges you have faced when communicating your ideas? Tell me more about a specific occurrence. Why did you take that approach? How would you do it differently?
• What experience have you had in making oral presentations? How do you rate your oral presentation skills?
• How could you improve your communication skills?
• Given the role’s focus on transformation, please outline how you bring stakeholders ‘on the journey’, particularly when influencing Board and key decision-makers. How would you overcome resistance?

Motivation

Motivation is a factor that significantly influences success in a role. These questions are to gather information about what may increase or decrease job satisfaction.

Being highly motivated to excel in some situations doesn’t mean a person will be highly motivated to excel in all situations: context matters.

Examples of motivational questions are:

• Why should we hire you into this position?
• What are the main drivers attracting you to this position?
• What motivates you in a role?
• What demotivates you in a role?
• Describe a work environment in which you were most productive.
• How do you like to be managed?
• What are your short-term and long-term career goals? What time frames do you have in mind?
• What gives you a sense of achievement at work?
• Which aspects of your last position did you like the most?Which aspects of you last position frustrated you?
• Why are you looking to leave your current position?

Innovation

Companies with a focus on innovation may include questions such as:

• How did you adapt your work to the changes in the market? What was the impact of your changes?
• What areas do you see need innovation in our business to keep pace with the market? How would we do that?
• If you had one month and $100K to tackle any innovation project, what would it be?
• When have you taken the opportunity to improve your processes? What was the flow through to the business?
• What problems at work would you most want to solve? How would you do that?

Risk and Governance

For senior level roles questions about risk and governance can be asked.

Examples are:

• What are your thoughts on the main risks to this organisation?
• Give us an example of a time when you made a suggestion that improved risk management in an organisation.
• What are the warning signs that may indicate a breakdown in good governance?

Strategy

Examples are:

• What do you see are our current strategic considerations?
• What are the key strategic opportunities for our organisation?
• What are the major strategic challenges facing our company in the short, medium and long term?
• What would you recommend we do to improve our financial outcomes?

Values and Culture Fit

Usually an organisation will have a question (or a few) to uncover fundamental values and ethics which underpin decision-making and behaviours. These questions may relate to the organisations mission, goals, standards, business ethics or charter.

Examples of values and culture fit questions are:

• What interests you about working with our organisation? Why?
• Tell me about your core values. Which of those are most important to you?
• Which of our organisational values most resonate with you? Why?
• Tell us about a time when you have seen someone at work in an unsafe situation? What did you do and what was the outcome?
• Describe the work environment in which you would be most happy.
• Describe a work environment in which you would not be happy.
• Why are you interested in working at this organisation?
• Describe your ideal company/organisational culture.
• If you could change one thing about the culture at your last company, what would it be?

Weak, Vague, Ambiguous, Inappropriate, Leading and Personal Questions

Some interviewers who aren’t trained in interview skills may ask weak, vague, ambiguous, inappropriate or overly personal questions. Here are some examples:

“How lucky are you?”

“If you were going to be stranded on an island and could only bring three things, what would you bring?”

“If you were an animal, what type of animal would you be and why?”

“Did you vote for the current Prime Minister/President?”

“Do you enjoy watching football?”

“What type of food do you like?”

“What type of movies do you watch?”

It’s best to avoid straying into personal territory or asking inappropriate questions, try to tactfully bring the discussion back to questions that are relevant to the job.

Avoid asking hypothetical or leading questions. Hypothetical questions will tell you what someone thinks they might do, not what they actually would do. Leading questions tell the listener what they want to hear.

For example, “I’m sure you will agree the best way to manage a team is to be seen as a coach and mentor …”, “I think creating the spread sheet is the easy part, isn’t it?” or “Don’t you think the proposed new regulations will hurt our industry?”.

Avoid asking multiple questions at once where the candidate cannot provide a clear answer, it is best to clarify or even write down the questions and then answer each separately.

Questions Which Are Potentially Discriminatory

In Australia, the US, the UK and many other countries, laws protect you against discrimination in job interviews.

A discriminatory question is one that may exclude potential employees on the basis of sex, marital status, pregnancy, family responsibilities or family status, race, colour or national origin, religious or political beliefs, health and physical abilities or disabilities, age, birthplace, gender history or sexual orientation.

Some occupations require a greater level of disclosure in job interviews, for example police officers, priests and diplomats. However for the majority of job types, candidates aren’t required to reveal personal details, such as if they plan to have children, what their child’s age is, or whether they regularly go to church.

Three key considerations are:

• Is the question related to a genuine occupational requirement?
• Is the question relevant to the job description and selection criteria?
• Is the question asking about one of the protected categories? (sex, marital

status, pregnancy, family responsibilities or family status, race, colour or national origin, religious or political beliefs, health and physical abilities or disabilities, age, birthplace, gender history or sexual orientation)

The laws provide important boundaries in society, however if an interviewer hasn’t been trained on which questions are discriminatory they may not be aware they are crossing the line. An interviewer is a representative of an organisation – as such they are accountable to comply with relevant legislation. In my 10 years of conducting job interviews, I have found most managers understand the limits, however a small number either don’t understand or choose to ignore them.

Part of being human means we view the world through our own lens. This includes inbuilt unconscious biases toward or against the characteristics of others. People can rely too heavily on stereotypes. These biases can be a barrier to a candidate getting due consideration.

If you are about to ask a potentially discriminatory question you could:

• Think about what you are really trying to find out, is there a better way?
• Redirect

Bear in mind there is no requirement for the candidate to provide a detailed answer if the question relates to a protected category.

Open Questions

The majority of questions you will ask will be open questions.

• How did you gain a promotion into your current position?
• When I contact your referees, what do you think they’ll say about you?

Probing, Follow Up, Prompting and Elaboration Questions

As an interviewer you may seek to gain clarification by asking a follow up question in order to dive deeper.

Examples:

• Please say more about that …
• Can you give an example of that?
• Who, what, where, when, why and how…
• How did you approach it?
• What actions did you take?
• What was the result of your actions?
• Why did you decide to do that?
• Please describe the specific role you had in that instance.
• What did you learn from the experience?
• What was the outcome?

Direct and Closed Questions
Narrowing down to specifics sometimes requires direct and closed questions like:

• What is your current salary package?
• How many people report to you?
• What is the size of the budget you are managing?
• Do you agree?

The top 10 questions I usually ask when screening candidates are:

1. What are you looking for in your next position?
2. What attracts you to this role?
3. Briefly, what skills and experience would you bring to this position?
4. Which aspects of the position, as listed in the position description, are you strongest in?
5. Which aspects of the position, as listed in the position description, do you require further development in?
6. Why are you looking to make a career move at this time?
7. What other opportunities are you considering at the moment?
8. What are your short-term and long-term career goals?
9. Are you able to meet the travel/operational requirements of this position?
10. What questions would you like to ask about the process or the role?

In conclusion, a well-structured interview not only provides you with valuable insights into the candidate’s skills and experiences but also reflects positively on your company. By fostering a comfortable atmosphere, asking targeted questions, and actively listening, you can make more informed hiring decisions. Interviews are about more than just assessing qualifications—they are also an opportunity to gauge cultural fit, motivation, and the potential for growth. By following these guidelines, you’ll be better equipped to hire the right person for your team.

I hope that’s helpful! Happy interviewing!